and david letterman didn't even need to make a joke to get a laugh. >> honest to god. >> reporter: he nevertheless did the top 10 signs your dog is a bad driver. >> crosses four lanes of traffic to go after a squirrel. oh, no. >> reporter: online posters imagined a future. "i see dogs in cars cutting me off, then flipping me the paw." look, i know you have a dog license but do you have a learner's permit? do any of you have learners' permits? now where were we? >> he used your car to mount a nissan sentra. the number one sign your dog is a bad driver, always taking eyes off road to lick himself. >> reporter: being trained to drive with treats is sure to have dogs heading for the closest drive-through. do you want to be the designated driver? who wants to be the designated driver tonight? >> reporter: definitely not napoleon. driving is his waterloo. jeanne moos, cnn. >> i said, hit the brake, not

eat the cake. we are on "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. breaking news. the president holds a last-minute press conference and calls on the senate to act on the fiscal cliff. but with four days to go, will his push make a difference? plus, politicians promised that the newtown shooting would change our national debate on guns. are those just empty promises? we count down the top five political rivalries. who won, who lost, what it means for 2013. let's go "outfront." breaking news. the president makes an 11th hour announcement tonight putting the pressure squarely on the senate so broker a deal on the fiscal cliff.

>> senators reid and mcconnell are working on such an agreement as we speak. but if an agreement isn't reached in time between senator reid and senator mcconnell, then i will urge senator reid to bring to the floor a basic package for an up or down vote, one that protects the middle class from an income tax hike, extends the vital life line of unemployment insurance to 2 million americans looking for a job, and lays the groundwork for future cooperation on more economic growth and deficit reduction. >> and just moments ago, senator harry reid says he's readying a bill for a vote by monday. all this follows a rare face to face-closed-door meeting at the white housed to between all the key players. the president, the vice president, the treasury secretary, and all four congressional leaders. huddled together with just four days to go before we all go over the fiscal cliff.

that meeting lasted for an hour and five minutes. now on a story where every second and every maneuver counts let's get right to chief white house correspondent increase ka yellin. the president says he's modestly optimistic but he also presented a backup plan. does the president really think it will come to that? >> at this point, no. they don't. because the white house is hopeful, first of all, that the agreement that the senators are working on can actually move forward after the meeting here. there is a modest uptick in enthusiasm about that possibility. but as for the backup plan, there's no real likelihood that would ever come to a vote. because republicans would likely block it in both the senate and it would likely not come to a vote in the house. so that's really more rhetoric than it is reality and we have to hope for option "a," getting an agreement in the senate, if

we're going to avoid going over the cliff. >> rhetoric versus reality, that's always a tricky place to be in washington. listen, this is serious high-stakes political poker here are what can you tell us about the meeting at the white house today? >> well, we've heard different takes, you hear everybody has a different per suspecttive of what happened depending on which party they're in. the big takeaway is everybody left agreeing on the next step which is that the senate will confer, the two leaders will confer and try to hammer out an agreement that democrats and republicans can both get on board with. that is what they'll spend their day doing tomorrow, so we're not going to hear or see a lot of public action tomorrow. and then we could -- they'll try to tell it to each of their respective parties on sunday, as you said, they'll try to bring to it a vote maybe sunday night or sometime monday morning in the senate. and at least there's agreement on the next steps, john. it's better than nothing. >> thank you, jessica. it will be a working weekend.

the minnesota majority in the house of representatives will of course be key to getting any deal across the finish line. "outfront" tonight, republican congress steve la turret of ohio, a member of the appropriations committee. thanks for coming "outfront." with this plan that the president's put forward, the scaled-down plan which would keep taxes low for 98% of americans, raising them for folks over 250, extending unemployment benefits. would you vote for that as an alternative to going over the fiscal cliff? >> i would have voted just to extend the tax cuts for 99.8% or whatever it was of americans that was john boehner's plan "b." a couple of things are either being misreported or inaccurately reported because what gets in the way of the president's plan is the constitution of the united states. and the good thing about this meeting is that the focus is now firmly on the united states senate where it should have been all these months. the house acted a long time ago to extend all the tax cuts and

take care of sequestration. the senate has given speeches. >> you're referring to the fact that revenue issues are supposed to generate in the house. right now, both speaker boehner and the president say it's between reid and mcconnell which does raise the question, whatever procedural and constitutional issues, which are profound. are you concerned as a republican, someone who is close to speaker boehner, if we go over the fiscal cliff, that republicans will get the blame? >> well, of course they will. because republicans get blamed if it rains if washington. that shouldn't be the test here, it shouldn't be the consideration. but senator reid has had it within his power since spring to amend the house bill and send it back with whatever changes he wanted. that's what the constitution says. sadly, they've given speeches instead of getting the job done. but nobody, nobody wants taxes to go up on middle class americans. and i hope that everybody works real hard over the weekend. a lot of americans have to work on the weekend. i don't think it's a big deal that we have to work this

weekend. >> it's not a big deal and you should all be working this weekend. listen, a few weeks ago it looked like speaker boehner and president obama were pretty close on a grand bargain. maybe not as big as should would hope. it looked like the president was saying, we'll raise that top rate and offer some entitlement reform. some talk of raising the medicare eligibility age. now because of where we're at do you feel the folked on the far right of your own party by not supporting the speaker have ended up undercutting their position and ultimately will get less a good deal on issues they care about than they might have otherwise. >> i think the country has missed a huge opportunity to solve the nation's problem and instead whatever comes out of the senate will be small ball, kick the can down the road. that's unfortunate because this is a big problem. i don't think the president and speaker were real close so i don't think my conservative colleagues have screwed anything up because the president, if you look at his call for a balanced proposal, it was never balanced because he was asking for $900 billion of tax increases and

chain cpi which was the super piece is $300 billion. when you talk 3 to 1 spending cuts to tax increases he had it lopsided. >> fair enough. i want to bring in a third party, s&p. today he released a statement, keeping america at its downgraded credit rating. they said august 5, 2011, standard & poor's lowered its rating for the u.s. citing among other factors the political brinksmanship of recent months that highlights america's governance becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable. we believe this characterization still holds. do you know this congress, your congress, has done more harm than good? do you feel embarrassed being part of a congress that ranks up there with the do-nothing congresses of all time? >> i think america should be embarrassed by its leadership in washington, d.c. but that extends to the white house, senate, and house of representatives. this has been the most predi predictable disaster coming at us for a number of years, and certainly months.

and the fact that we have been unable to do things and instead worried about our next elections instead of the next generation of americans, i think it's sinful and i hope that people turn out those who have been responsible for it. >> congressman, you're a straight shooter, we always appreciate you coming "outfront." next, mixed feelings about gun crot. most americans support a ban on assault weapons but also support the nra. plus, allegations of child abuse at a u.s. military base. two workers in custody and 30 more taken off the job. what their background checks revealed. horror in the nation's largest subway system. for the second time in one month a man is pushed to his death in front of a new york city subway train. and would always be there with the biggest welcome home. for a love this strong, dawn only feeds him iams. compared to other leading brands, it has 50% more animal protein.

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a favorable opinion of the national rifle association which is adamant new gun laws are not the answer to stemming violence, down slightly from a year ago. on the other hand, a poll by "the washington post" and abc shows 52% of americans favor banning semiautomatic weapons, 59% support banning high-capacity clips. good to see you guys. margaret, i know that you grew up hunting, your dad took you hunting in colorado. one of the sea changes we've seen in the wake of this shooting is senators like joe manchin, mike warner, saying i've changed my mind, joe manchin saying, i've never hunted with more than three shells in a clip. why isn't this a conversation we can be having more broadly? >> i would also point you to the democratic governor of colorado also said, i'm not sure if an assault weapons ban would have stopped james woolsly in this mass certificate in colorado.

an assault weapons ban wouldn't have stopped him. it's not just a republican or democratic issue. in 1994, the democrats took a huge political walloping -- do you like that word? for instituting the assault weapons ban, and the house of representative s went back to republicans for the first time in four years -- >> i'm not sure that's why they took a whooping. >> here's why we have had a frank conversation. any time you talk about guns or gun violence in this country, it goes to, if we do this, it would not have prevented this certain act. the issue is not what just took place in newtown. the issue that is we have an epidemic in america when it comes to gun violence. so with this conversation, it has become one-dimensional, it's only about guns, it's about a magazine. it hasn't been broadened to deal with poverty, economics, mental illness. you can look at newtown, chicago, stand your ground laws in florida, it's a broader gun

issue. >> you're talking about a larger conversation. i want to read a quote by senator marco rubio. he did seem to indicate a change of sentiment. he said, senator rubio supports a serious and comprehensive study of our laws to find a new and better way to prevent more mass shootings. that is one of the few republican senators who did send that kind of a signal. if we agree it's comprehensive and part of this is obviously mental health issues, why can't high-capacity magazine clips or assault weapons, which have no purpose other than to kill as many people as quickly as possible, be part of a comprehensive conversation? >> in my view everything should be on the table if you can prove it will work or there's a sense it will work. the truth is, roland, if you can -- agreed with you, if you can take 8% here, 8% here, 8% here, you should do it it. that is a reasonable approach. >> the reason i'm smiling is because we're trial to have inverted conversation.

newtown was a moment. aurora was a moment. john, what you're really asking for is, where is the moment? >> that's right. >> with a movement, there has to be a are the stag point. if you look at the civil rights movement, that started with emmitt till, montgomery, montgomery was supposed to be a boycott. people on the ground who begin to drive this issue. the conversation can't start in washington. washington is an aftereffect. it has to start with the people in various places driving them to move. if that doesn't happen, they will not move. >> you're absolutely right. that is the history of movements in america. but there is going to be a bill we know senator dianne feinstein is going to introduce a bill on the first day of the new congress. why shouldn't more folks get behind that, including some republicans? because i'd like to remind you of one thing. justice scalia said in the heller decision, like most rights the second amendment is

not unlighted. he said, it is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever for whatever purpose. from the high priest of the supreme court of conservatism himself. why doesn't that create some room for current conservatives like ronald reagan did in 1994 to back an assault weapons ban? >> the issue is, are you going to be punishing law-abiding gun owners with these kind of regulations? there are plenty of people who own these guns who have a right to own these guns who are not part of the problem. are you punishing those people who have a right to own those guns because there are craziesed out there that you are not affecting with an assault guns weapon? there is nothing about this that touches mental health -- >> do i really need so shoot 30 bullets at one time? is 10 okay? >> who is presumptuous enough to determine what that number is for law-abiding gun owners? >> again, this is part of its own issue. when you say high-capacity magazines, you've got people who are law-apaiding, of course you

do. guess what? if the people who are law-abiding say, i can hunt. but first of all, that means you're a bad shot if you need 30 bullets. okay? again, you have to have those folks step up. john, she can introduce the bill all she wants to. unless you have massive public pressure, which is why i got in trouble last week when i said, if one of those mothers did what mamie till says, and said show my by in an open casket, versus the photos, it causes people to change on this issue. because we're confronted with it. we don't want to look at that. >> that's why we're continuing the conversation. that's a great point about emmett till. two day care workers in police custody tonight over allegations of bussing children. barbara starr has the exclusive "outfront" investigation. a second person has been pushed in front of a train in new york city. poppy harlow asks city officials what it says about the safety of america's largest subway system. ? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus

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our third story "outfront" tonight, allegations of child abuse at a u.s. military base. two caregivers at an army day care center in virginia are charged with assaulting children. at least 30 other workers have been taken off the job after background checks found criminal records including sexual assault and drug use. military families are shocked and asking a lot of questions tonight. barbara starr has this exclusive

"outfront" investigation. >> reporter: this little boy was supposed to be safe at an army day care center. >> this happened to military families a stone's throw away from the pentagon. if it could happen here, it could happen any high where. >> reporter: this military wife and other of two doesn't want her face shown. cnn has also agreed not to show her children's faces or identify them by age. >> obviously, barbara, i am concerned about the privacy of my children. and then there's always the possibility of retaliation against my husband. >> reporter: it's every parent's nightmare. finding out her toddler was physically assaulted by child care workers at the ft. myer army day care center. the scandal grew to the point if the obama made an unprecedented phone call to army secretary john mac cue to express his concern. according to this fbi affidavit, this little boy and others were punched and slapped.

one child was dragged across the floor. >> we thought, of all the different options, putting them in a child care facility during the day that was on a military base, that was pretty well-staffed, would be the safest, most secure environment for them. >> reporter: it all began back on september 26th when a parent reported misconduct. the army quickly reviewed surveillance video and found several young children, all under the age of 5, were physically abused. charges of simple assault were filed. but parents were still in the dark. two days later, on september 28th, they are hand adler saying only that this is a report of alleged mistreatment and inappropriate behavior by staff. >> all along, this first week when we were being sort of given

piecemeal information, denied access to the videotapes, we were also being asked if we wanted to seek medical care for our child. >> reporter: medical care for what? >> for what? obviously we wanted to understand and see with our own eyes, since that evidence was available. >> reporter: she was horrified when she finally saw the surveillance tape of her child. >> obviously you don't ever want to see your child subjected to that kind of assault. these were the caregivers we entrusted them to every morning. >> reporter: november 7, the army started checking other employees records and found backgrounds including charges of sexual abuse of a minor, assault, and drug charges. on december 14th, 30 workers are suspended. but parents are still not told about those faulty background checks. this mother says she moved her children out of the ft. myer center. >> we believe the military families deserve better than this.

>> barbara, a fascinating and disturbing report. one element is that secretary panetta wasn't told about this significant breach of trust, just outside the pentagon, an army facility, for almost two months. what happened with that? >> reporter: that's right, secretary panetta wasn't told, we're told the army secretary john mchugh wasn't informed until the very end. officials tell us there were procedures, going through personnel procedures to look at all these people, and there was this criminal investigation, they had to finish that up. i have to tell you, aides, close aides to both men are very disturbed about all of this. they say that both secretaries want this fixed. >> of course they do, barbara. one other question is, how could these background checks fail so close to the pentagon, people working with children, when their backgrounds show allegations of sexual abuse and drug use in their past? >> reporter: that's what they're trying to figure out. there is now a full

investigation into the procedures of background checks. were these people running into legal trouble while they were already working and it wasn't reported? were the background checks never done properly in the first place? they're trying to figure all of this out, and at the same time, defense secretary panetta has told all of the military services to look at the same question at all of their facilities. >> thank you, barbara starr at the pentagon. "outfront" next, worries about the fiscal cliff wreaking havoc on our economy. stocks down for the fifth straight day. what lawmakers must do to stop the bleeding. we count down our top political rivalries. find out how many of your favorite politicians made this list. because it's the final 100 hours of the ford year end celebration. last chance to get the best deals of the year on america's freshest lineup.

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i'm john avlon in for erin burnett wide receiver we start the second half of our show with other stories we're following tonight. russian president vladimir putin has signed a bill into law that bans u.s. families from adopting russian children. the u.s. state identicals the move politically motivated and the law is seen largely as retaliation for an act signed by president obama that restricts human rights abusers from traveling into the u.s. two military officials tell cnn the syrian government is now using more accurate iranian-made missiles. this week the sources say the regime fired at least two of those short-range ballistic missiles in an attempt to hit syrian targets more accurately.

the use of these weapons has prompted nato to send patriot missile systems to protect turkey. they're expected to be in place by the end of january. a 24-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the 21 man who ambushed and killed two firefighters when called to a house fire in upstate new york. police announced today she purchased the rifle and shotgun used in the estimate echristmas attack. she told the gun shop she would be the true owner but she purchased the guns for aex con who is not allowed to possess guns. since january there have been more people murdered on the streets of chicago than american soldiers killed in afghanistan. in chicago, homicides are up 17% and shootings up 11% over the last year alone. chicago hadn't reached the 500 homicide mark since 2008.

it has been 512 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? not enough. that gets me to other fourth story "outfront" tonight. bracing for impact. fears of falling off the fiscal cliff are taking a big toll on the financial market. stocks close lower for the fifth straight day, ending the week down nearly 2%. the dow suffered its steepest loss since november 14th and tonight, the president warned of the economic consequences of this part son gridlock. >> economists, business leaders, all think that we're appointeded to grow in 2013. as long as politics in washington don't get in the way of america's progress. so we've got to get this done. >> "outfront" tonight, daniel altman at nyu stern school of business, stephen, let me start

with you. do you share the president's mod els optimism? >> you know, my opinion of this changes every couple of hours, john. because there's these negotiations going on. and this morning i felt pretty positive the president was flying back from his hawaii vacation, republicans seemed to be in the mood to try to get this done, and they could bridge this gap. but you know, my conversations with some of the republican leaders is that not much was accomplished today. and as you know, john, the clock is ticking. what are we, 72 hours away from going over that cliff? i'm not sure this is going to get resolved right new. looks like we may go into january without a deal. >> stephen moore saying we're going off the cliff. we've got new details on the plan, the president's scaled-down proposal. here's what's on the table. extend the current tax rates for 98% of americans, incomes up to $250,000. extend unemployment benefits, that's an important point. extending the alternative minimum tax patch.

prevents cuts in payments to doctors who treatment medicare payments. would this scaled-down proposal save us from economic disaster? >> we've done a tremendous amount of damage to ourselves, embarrassing ourselves around the world. assuring investors we're as risky as standard & poor's thought we were when they reduced our credit rating. it would be great if we could avoid sharp credit risks. restoring the unemployment insurance benefits is really important because you have millions of people who are depending on this for income. and they're going to spend that money if you give it to them and that's what the economy needs. >> absolutely right. >> wait, hold on. let me say something. that outlines that deal that you just put on the table, on the screen, that's not -- no different than what the president's been saying for six weeks. this was the problem. this is why there was no progress today. the president didn't really budge an inch. look, i totally disagree. i think extending unemployment insurance is a big negative for the economy. i don't see why republicans would want to do that and they

don't. what's sort of in this deal for the republicans? there's no real spending cuts here. in fact, there's a spending increase in exchange for a tax credit. i see republicans walking away from the table on that. we need real serious spending cuts and they're just not being presented here. >> that's part of the tragic aspect of this whole kabuki. working toward a deal, the president was offering some entitlement reform -- >> what entitlement reform? >> changed cpi on social security, talked about raising the eligibility age, that's not nothing from a democratic president. >> the democrats never put raising the eligibility age of medicare on the table, that was one of the reasons the negotiations broke down. >> there's a reason for that and the reason is simple. you can't do this in a two-day period. we need a deal which is going to get us over the tax cliff so we don't have the increase in tax rates. but an entitlement reform, a comprehensive tax reform, these things are going to take more time. >> that's absolutely true but that's the reason -- why not

just extend all these tax rates as we did two years ago, then do tax reform and entitlement reform in 2013, we don't go over the cliff. >> we'll get to the possibility of a comprehensive reform next year in a second. let me ask you this. if we agree, just reality check, if we all agree on 98% of the taxes at stake, why not just take that deal and then we can focus on the other 2% later. as a card-carrying fiscal conservative, one of the leading ones in the country, do you feel a bad deal is worse than no deal? would you rather say, if it's not perfect, let's go over the cliff? >> i think raising the capital gains tax, raising the dividend tax, raising the estate tax, raising taxes on small businesses, is a disaster for the economy, it's too fragile. >> that's not true at all. all the research shows that actually the economic activity is not that sensitive to tax rates at the top of the income distribution -- >> that's not true, it's the opposite. >> i'm sorry --

the economy's highly sensitive, that's why countries have been cutting tax rateth. >> we grew faster when we had higher tax rates. >> let's just do it another reality check on this. which is that, whether we go over the cliff or have a scaled-down deal, we've got two things looming, a debt ceiling in probably two months which republicans will no doubt use as leverage. we still don't have a grand bargain that deals with deficit and debt by taking on tax reform and entitlement reform. what rational reason, stephen, first you, should we have that that other kick the can to another situation we're about to go off a cliff would produce any different result from a new congress? >> i'm not sure it will. john, what we're talking about here is very deep ideological divisions in terms of what causes economic growth, what causes prosperity for the country. you can see it in the two of us arguing. raising tax rates is a disaster for the economy, i think it will be very harmful, a lot of lib rats believe it doesn't do too much harm at all.

we have philosophical differences here. >> not only are we embarrassing ourselves in front of people from around the world and making it seem a lot riskier to invest in this country, we're manufacturing this crisis which is going to mean government loses the trust of voters and that's going to make it much harder to collect taxes in the future and spend in the future and do anything. >> i agree, get this done, extend the tax cuts, go into 2013 without going over the cliff, deal with some of these issues. you're right, it will be an embarrassment at a time american economy if we go over this cliff, it would be very problematic for us. but you can't blame the republicans. think both parties share equally in the blame. >> everybody's going to blame the republicans. >> that's a political matter. i'll tell you it's not a philosophical disagreement, it's a crisis of self-government. a disturbing story out of new york tonight next. police are looking for a young woman who allegedly pushes a man onto the subway tracks when a train was approaching the station in queens.

police have just identified the man as 46-year-old suendo sen of queens, new york. this is the second time in a month a passenger was pushed to his death in front of a train. it's raising some serious questions about the safety of the nation's largest subway system. >> it was -- it was horrible. horrible. it echoed through the bottom. i never want to hear something like that again. >> reporter: this man heard the final scream of the victim. james callanan's train was halted because of the incident. >> they said that this is the last stop on the 7 train. debris fell on the tracks. >> reporter: witnesses say the victim was standing on the edge of this subway platform in queens when a woman who was pacing and talking to herself pushed him onto the tracks. the victim was a graphic designer who had moved to new york from india. >> i'm feeling very bad. he has nobody here. and i heard that his parents

died a long time before. >> reporter: surveillance footage captured this woman running from the station. police are searching for the woman they describe as heavy-set, in her 20s, wearing a ski jacket and sneakers. >> we do live in a world where our subway platforms are open and that's not going to change. >> reporter: at a news conference friday, mayor bloomberg and new york city police commissioner ray kelly were inundated with questions about the subway death. >> mayor bloomberg, a second subway pushing death in this city in less than a month. i'm wondering what your reaction is to that. how can it be prevented? >> i don't know that there is a way to prevent -- there's always going to be someone, a deranged person. >> reporter: this month a 58-year-old man was killed when a homeless man shoved him onto the tracks in times square. >> commissioner, would you consider putting more police on platforms in the wake of what's happened this month? >> no, we think that we are properly deployed in the transit system. >> you show me any place in this

world where 5.5 million people get together that has the visit basically zero crime rate that we do. >> reporter: mta which runs new york city subways would not talk to us on-camera but said people should stay away from the platform edges and be aware of their surroundings at all times. bill henderson advises the mta. what can be done to prevent things like this? >> i mean, not -- you can't eliminate the possibility, but this is a very rare occurrence. >> why not put some sort of barrier here? >> you have different car types running on the tracks on new york city subways and they have doors placed at different points along the length. if you ran a different kind of car, you'd have to move openings. >> just not practical? >> not practical. >> very expense sniff. >> very expensive. >> reporter: subway deaths like these are very rare here in new york city. years go by without them happening and the same is true in other major cities like washington, d.c. and boston.

>> thank you, poppy. still to come, the battle lines have been drawn. the players have picked their side. our panel counts down the best political rivalries next. share everything. share brotherly love. share one up's. mom ? mom ? the share everything plan. lets your family share a pool of data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. get a spectrum 2 by lg for $49.99 welcome to chevy's year-end event. so, the 5.3-liter v8 silverado can tow up to 9,600 pounds? 315 horsepower. what's that in reindeer-power? [ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevy's giving more. get the best offer of the year -- 0% apr financing for 60 months

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we're back with tonight's "outer circle" where we reach out to our sources around the world. tonight we go to johan sister berg where despite rumors that nelson mandela is close to

death, his family says he is at home doing well following gallstone surgery. robyn curnow spoke to mandela's granddaughter a short while ago and i asked what else she learned about nelson mandela's health. >> this is the first time we've heard from anybody close to nelson mandela since he was hospitalizeded in early december. there's been secrecy about his condition so no doubt many will be relieved to hear his granddaughter say he's cheerful in good spirits. sitting up, waving at the kids, smiling at the kid is, very alert. >> his granddaughter addressed the rumors nelson mandela was sent home by his doctors to die. she says this was not the case and the family and nelson mandela deserved both privacy and respect. >> thank you. our fifth story "outfront" tonight. before a big fight, boxer mohammad ali used to say, we're going to get it on because we don't get along. and the same is true in

political rivalries today. after a bruising election year, our station's star politicians are getting ready for new fights in the 2013. they're dusting off their gloves, getting back in the ring. we have a front-row seat with an early look at the top five political rivalries that will likely play out in the new year. let's start up in the bay state. we've got a bitter fight from this election year and you can see these folks serving again in the senate. elizabeth warren and scott brown, take a look at their sparring this year. >> i think what you're referring to is the fact that professor warren claimed she was a native american, a person of color. and as you can see, she's not. >> senator brown wants to raise an issue about my character, then i'll lay it out there. you know, what i was growing up, these are the stories i knew about my heritage. i believed my mother and my father and my aunts and my uncles and i never asked anybody

for any documentation. >> well, aye i'll tell you, scott brown obviously lost that race. with john kerry going to state, scott walker's probably going to run in june, they could be serving together, what do you think about that? >> she knocked him out like manny pacquiao got knocked out, so forget that. she beat him down this last race, trust me. >> barack obama dealt the knockout blow. it wasn't this candidate, she was a very, very weak candidate by any standard. she's beloved by progressives but she won because barack obama was at the top of the ticket, let's get real. >> scott brown has a 58% favorability rating, it's likely he goes back to the senate, they're going to be colleagues in the senate. if that's true, they'll get over it. >> when she loses, play that tape of pacquiao getting knocked down, say that's scott brown. >> margaret's right, scott

brown's still popular in massachusetts. >> he lost. >> number four rivalry, paul ryan versus marco rubio, the republican party already making jokes about 2016. >> both parties tend to divide americans into our voters and their voters. we must speak to the aspirations and anxieties of every american. >> one of the fundamental challenges before us is to find an appropriate and sustainable role for government. and closing that gap between the dreams of millions of americans and the opportunities for them to realize them. >> now, that was the dinner they were joking about seeing each other at diners in iowa. both making conscious plays to have the gop reach out to the middle class, reach out beyond their beyond their base. are these two folks, these two rising stars on capitol hill on a collision course? >> no, this is a rivalry republicans welcome. we want to see the republicans

duke it out. by the way, add bobby jindal, add ted cruz, bring deon. this is what the republican party needs. >> the real battle will be rubio/ted cruz. they want to say i can lock up latinos. you want to deal with me when it comes to the primary, that's going to be the real fight. cruz is a texan. he's going to come in swinging. he's going to walk in and say, you're not the only hot hispanic in the u.s. senate. >> rubio and cruz are very, very far apart, whereas rubio and ryan are saying much the same thing. that's why that's an interesting rivalry. they're trying to get across this middle class message. rubio has the inside track. >> let's do something more topical, which is john boehner and eric cantor. the atmosphere up on capitol hill has been like the roman senate for a long time now. these folks working together in leadership, but even over a year ago, politico was running an article saying boehner and eric

cantor call for a truce, talking about a year of behind the scenes bitter fighting. their staffs were trying to find a way to work together. speaker vote is coming up january 3rd. boehner had a bad beating in the plan "b" vote. you don't think this is going to get better, do you? >> the main thing he has going for him in that rivalry is he has the worst job in the world. >> really, the worst job? >> certainly the worst job in congress. basically, speaker boehner has to sit there and eat a lot of stuff that you wouldn't necessarily eat because there are a lot of republicans who basically want to emote, they want to act up. and speaker boehner just has to take it and try to hammer deals. and eric cantor goes into his role, he has to do the same thing boehner has to do. >> the starting quarterback hates the quarterback. and boehner, if he was smart, he should have dispatched him and said young man, i'm going to put you out to pasture if you pull that again.

>> the truth is the two of them are working closely together in these negotiations. boehner hasn't cut cant or out. you ask any republican on the hill, nobody thinks boehner should be challenged. >> that does seem to be conventional wisdom. but it only does take 17 votes for that whole thing to fall apart. he reminds me of the godfather, keep your friends close, your enemies closer. >> he knows him too well to want to take it. >> that's a fascinating point as well. number two, we've got grover norquist versus the gop. and here's what's fascinating. he's been a major player, a huge figure, and yet the push back has been growing. the tide has been swelling. take a look at this montage clip of republicans pushing back on grover norquist in the atr pledge. >> i'm not obligated on the pledge. >> when you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other should be avoid greed.

>> i never signed the pledge. >> he's becoming irrelevant. you can see it in his eyes. he knows the game is up. >> a pledge you sign 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that congress. >> i'm going to be the one to determine what a tax increase is. grover norquist is not going to determine what a tax increase is. >> message seems clear. don't fear the grover. that echoes throughout the upper echelons of the gop. >> boehner tput tax revenues on the table and we heard nothing from norquist. this is a false drama, manufactured by people like you who can't stand norquist. >> people like me? >> the fiscal cliff is a big deal because it's kind of like a vampire and garlic. once you go over the cliff, tax rate go up so much, anything is a tax cut beyond nat. the thing is if you're actually raising taxes from a current policy tax line, you would violate his pledge, but once they go up automatically,

cutting them from there, which could still mean higher taxes than we have now, is not actually a tax hike. >> you mentioned the godfather, they need to treat him like fraido. >> i appreciate a good godfather reference. number one, hillary versus hillary. here is why, because she has the whole democratic field tied up. here's her denial and james carville setting the report strad. >> i said i don't really believe that that's something i will do again. i am so grateful i had the experience of doing it before. but you know, i think there are lots of ways to serve. so i will continue to serve. >> she's an extraordinarily able person. i never met anyone i thought was a better public servant, but i have no earthly idea what she'll decide to do. >> every democrat i know says god, i hope she runs. we don't need a primary. we don't want to fight with anybody over anything. >> she's leaving state, but i

hate to fast forward into 2016, but the fact is until she makes up her mind what she does, the democratic presidential field is frozen. >> no, it's not. >> no? >> compare hillary clinton 2012 to clinton 2008. everybody said, don't run, she's going to walk away with it. what happened? four years is a long time. for james and the folks begging for her, if she runs, she will not be running alone. she will fight in a primary. >> are republicans quaking in their boots at the thought of martin o'malley or andy cuomo? >> i actually think hillary clinton deserves a year to take a deep breath and not have to worry about it. she needs to rest. give her 2013. it's not hillary versus hillary. but i think she ends up running. >> who the heck knows what could happen and how things are going to shake up. >> fascinating point. fascinating conversation for 2013. we'll be right back.

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